I recall one Winter night this past year being in a Barnes and Noble bookstore (or Border’s, whatever) and noticing a psychology section. I like psychology so I was immediately drawn to it. And then immediately repulsed. A quick scan of the small section revealed titles with an overwhelmingly sexual nature to them. I was quite disappointed and needless to say got The Republic by Plato instead (Though I haven’t read it yet…). Anyway, I was on Mobipocket.com which is actually a pretty fantastic eBook place, but I use it mostly because of all the Palm syncable content they have on it. My eyes scanning through all the sections stumbled upon, you guessed it, psychology. And once again, I was disappointed. Here are the “Top titles” from said section:
- The Pickup Artist: The New and Improved Art of Seduction
- Hypnosis and the Science of Seduction
- The Secret Language of Hypnotherapy
- Controlling People
- Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness
- The Sociopath Next Door
- How to Win Any Argument
Wow. Psychology? Maybe. Selling sex, self, and pride? Definitely. (Side note: Controlling people is a book on people who are controlling and not a how-to-control-people book, though that would be comical if it was…) So there you have it. This is what psychology is to the modern reader. I guess the works of the great psychologists and actual books on psychology don’t sell well. This is a great indicator of what our society is focused on…comforting thought…
Heh. I have "The Complete Guide To Verbal Manipulation" on my psychology shelf (yes, I have an entire shelf). It's actually quite fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm going to have to slog through all the sexual stuff in my psychology training, Christian college or not.
Also, I would argue that "the selling of Self and Pride" is not actually the main focus of the psychology library, but I'm extremely tired and it's bad manners to start an argument in the comments section. =P